Well, today's the day Chrono Cross comes out. I personally should
have a solid 12 hours to play it before tomorrow's column. On another note, someone seems to
have passed off a jug of antifreeze as Gatorade. Actually, come to think of it, antifreeze would
probably taste a whole lot better than this. It truly is repulsive. Come to think of it, I think
I'll stop drinking it.

One last thing before I get rolling. Since I'm going to drop everything for Chrono Cross, this
is probably my last chance to say this. Thank you very very much Blizzard for porting Diablo 2
to Macs so quickly. Now it shall collect dust for a while, but really, it's great. 8)

I've given you a bit of spoiler space (both Suikoden games) since I know you
hate being spoiled -- the spoilers below aren't big ones by any means, but
better safe than sorry.

1) McDohl's relationship with Gremio. There's obviously total devotion there
-- not quite brotherly, friendly, or paternal. For all of Kasumi's mooning in
both games, you end the first game by going off with Gremio and are still
living alone with him three years later in the sequel. She doesn't rate any
kind of reaction from the hero in her big scene in the sequel (Gremio's death
rates a bowed head), nor is there any serious implication in that scene that
there was ever more between the two of you. (Notice, too, Gremio's horror at
the thought of you spending the night with Odessa.)

2) The second hero's relationship with Jowy. There is again a mooning female
(Eilie) who is out of her league; she ends the game by going back on the road
with her siblings. The female lead, Nanami, is not a potential partner for
either of you despite how much she clearly loves you. And Jowy never seems to
consider having a real relationship with Jillia, though she may feel
differently. That leaves the two of you as the most important people in one
another's lives -- your relationship is the clothesline that the whole game
is hung upon. It finds a parallel, too, in the relationship between Han and
Genkaku that's described in the exposition. Two unmarried generals who had to
sacrifice their relationship to end the war... Wonder if there was anything
going on there?

3) Viktor and Flik. Each has one or two tragic hetero romances in his past...
but the two of them always seem to wind up together, including the three
years between the games. And neither is doing very much to pursue females --
Flik just flips out when Kimberly makes him have "tea" with her, Viktor
doesn't make a move on Anabelle when he has a chance (though she seems
interested), and Flik won't have anything to do with the eager Nina. (The
last is quite understandable; who wouldn't run away from that psycho?)

4) Sheena. The dialogue in the second game (though not the first) makes it
clear that Lepant and Eileen had a son and not a daughter... but with a
female name and an androgynous 'do, I get a very clear feeling that Sheena's
actually a skirt-chasing lesbian.

5) Vincent and Simone. Duh. As the most overtly gay couple in the series
(though not quite obvious enough to raise concerns from "family friendly"
groups), they are the least interesting.

All of the real hetero romances are on the back burner in this series -- Hix
and Tengaar, Kirkis and Sylvinia, Teo and Sonya, Clive and Elza, Lepant and
Eileen, and whoever else I'm forgetting. Not forgotten or denigrated, but
distinctly less important than what's going on between characters of the same
sex. The gay subtext may not have been intentional, but it's a unique and
irreplaceable part of the chemistry of the Suikoden games.

-Mike

Googleshng:I don't think anything else needs to be
said on the issue.

Ledu Dulagon!

Hey Goog, just thought I'd fix something you said about the almighty
Infinity AD&D games.

Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale don't have dragons for two reasons. 1)
They're big. The engine couldn't handle dragons at first. 2) They could mop
the floor with parties from either of the games. A dragon could kill your
characters with one hit.

If you didn't see my Baldur's Gate II update a while back (here and here), there you go. No one knows for sure if the
dragon will be a unique creature, or if there will be more than one
*shudders*.

Also, you made a comment about an RPG where you didn't have to save the
world. Neverwinter Nights, baby. Single-player fun, multiplayer mayhem.
Expandable out to extremes not even thought up *drools*. Not only this, but
on the official site, they've
mentioned periodically releasing official modules to play. Not only will
most not be about saving the world, but that's a lot of gameplay right there.

So, look for great things when it comes to (A)D&D games for the next year
or so. I know I will

Matt Prince, RPGamer's resident AD&D game person-guy-thing.

Googleshng:A few people apparently thought that by
REALLY REALLY GOOD, I meant alignment. I meant stat wise. As for your comment on not saving
the world, open endedness doesn't count. I want a nice console style RPG with a clear cut
ending that doesn't involve the fate of the world... and I don't want Rhapsody. 8)

Well then...

Okay, I'm sure you'll get a million emails on this, but here's another: There IS an escaflowne
playstation game actually. I've never played it, but it exists, and you pretty much follow the plot of
the anime throughout it. Needless to say, it's available only in japanese ^_^
Ashley

Googleshng:Eh, Xenogears is still enough for me. 8)

Yikes

Square will release FF1,2 and 3 on Wonderswan (Stupid Name by the way.. sounds like a swan super hero)??????
That is the most stupid thing they've done. Maybe its one of the stupidest things done in the video-game industry
since the Virtual Boy. Why does square make the games for the SuperSwan and not the Gameboy? Because they hate
Nintendo.. Gee.. It seems like Square doesn't want to make money or something. There arent as many Mightyswans
as there are Gameboys in people's hands. Oh.. Why do I write this hateful crap? Because that Sony loving
Nintendo-hating attitude is bad for.. Nintendo? Yeah, but it's also bad for gamers. Square should be like Elecronic
Arts (Their americanbuddies) and release games on all pltaforms.. No.. they should be like Capcom and Konami and
release different (and good) games for all platforms. Sometimes I think Square's president is a bigger a$$munch than
Nintendo's child eating Hiroshi Yamauchi. Oh yeah.. and FF9 looks cool! BTW: Is your game going to be 3D like
the one your Microsoft-hating friend is doing? BECAUSE it looks so cool!!!!! It's like a 8-bit FFT.

"Retteb si Erog." That;s Spanish for I dont like to talk about politics too!

Googleshng:This is probably the most extreme letter
I recieved on this subject, but the rest were all quickie sized. Anyway, general consensus
is that the gameboy would be a much better system to port FF1-3 to... but it's FF1-3!
They really aren't all that great. So, I'm not too worried over the issue.

Oh, the MAIL SERVER is DOWN.

It was just brought to my attention that RPGamer's mail server is down. I wish someone had told me that
earlier. I've been checking my mail for the last 4 hours looking for more letters.

Googleshng:Oh well, I guess I'll have a lot for
tomorrow.

Here's Radrisol for ya.

Heys, this is the first comic where i'm the main character. mainly becase
it's easier to draw my alter ego holding a hammer and having aged 50 years.
Enjoy. Want Chrono Cross SOOO bad.

Googleshng:This comment isn't even remotely print
worthy, but I have space to fill. 8)

Quickies

Gay men? icky. It would be nice to have to women in a very serious
relationship though.

Mail server's down, so all quickes are printed, regardless of sexist content.

So, if you had to vote for one of two equally matched candidates supporting
the exact same things, but one was a man and one was a woman, who would you
vote for?

Probably the Democrat... this letter's subject was Paws. People don't still think I'm Paws, do
they?

Why hasn't someone created an RPG yet where you play the villain?

Sincerely,
Insanerest of AOL
Servant of Darkness and D.D.S.

I have a half made one sitting right here on my computer. In the meantime, there's Dungeon Keeper!
8)

That quote is all over Dragon Force. Too many generals say it to name them
all. It's one of the sonic boom launch messages.

Spanky"Sonic BOOOOOOMMMM!!!Shanks

Bingo! Here's your tilde! ~

i got chrono cross!!!
and the soundtrack!!!

and... and alarm clock!?!

Then what are you talking to me for? Play the darn thing!

http://www.theonion.com/onion3627/video_game_characters.html

apparently, the video game characters are boycotting! why isn't this in the
news section?! wouldn't ya think this was pertinent?!

Did you read the article? That's platformers. Still, Onion funny.

Hey Googleshng
I just used Yahoo! for the first time in about a year, and i saw it was
powered by Google. When do you sleep?

I don't. That's kinda why I'm trying to take a vacation!

The Last Laugh:

Like i siad, my mail server's down for the night, I'm sure I'll get smacked with a huge
flood of decent letters when it gets back.

Now I'm going to sleep, wake, and play Chrono Cross until my eyes bleed. Then I'll be
back to answer questions on it. Bye!